Commercial grade linoleum is available in lengths which are six feet wide so that almost always the last strip to be laid on the floor of a room or a covering theron must be carefully trimmed to fit against the bordering walls.
In order to effect such trimming, the strip usually is cut to provide an edge portion which, while still needing to be carefully trimmed, is dimensioned to lay curved upwardly to a limited extent against the wall or baseboard.
In order that such a rough cut margin may be more conveniently trimmed than by means of a hand held knife, a tool is available to assist the installer, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,382,579 and 3,395,453. Such a tool is designed to be manually held and slid along the material, linoleum or carpeting, with a member holding the margin to be trimmed flat against the wall or baseboard with a resulting narrow curved junction between the held material and that underlying the tool. The tool has a knife adjacent each end with that one which is at the trailing end when the tool is in use, exposed through a slot in the holding member in a position to sever the material close to the held margin.
Such a tool cannot be used where the material is insufficiently flexible to be curved sharply upwardly against the wall with a radius at the junction such as the use of that tool requires.